The Wireless aims to produce inspiring, insightful and entertaining stories for New Zealanders who have grown up in the digital age.

Our work was born out of idea of a youth radio network, which has been kicked around in New Zealand for the past 20 years.

But the time for a radio network has passed. We live in an age where you can tell a story anyway you want on one platform – the internet.

You’re going to find stories told in video, photos, audio and text. Some will be told in two types of media, some will be told in all four, or maybe even more depending on where technology takes us.

And Whelan (Lena Hesselgrave and Elle Hunt complete the editorial team of four) has written for Public Address to mark the launch. She says:

The Wireless is aiming to tell entertaining, informative New Zealand stories for those people that have grown up in the digital age. We’ll tell their stories without advertising, without shying away from controversy, and with all of Radio New Zealand’s core ethics of accuracy, fairness, independence, respect and diversity.

Radio New Zealand has an obligation to serve a wide range of interests, and all age groups. And while there are parts of the organisation who do that last part well, only a small percentage of its audience are younger listeners. The Wireless is reaching out to them.

Glance about the crisply designed front page of The Wireless, however, and there’s no obvious sign of RNZ-ness.

Scroll right the way to the foot of the page and, look, there it is, the Radio New Zealand logo, in the bottom right corner. For better or worse, it does feel a little like the Wireless doesn’t want to be seen with its elders.